What Happened At... MFW

Why The Shell Suit Is The Most-Grammed Look On The Gucci Catwalk

Would You Go Without Mascara?

In a quick straw poll of the Vogue office, mascara was the beauty product most frequently chosen as a desert-island essential above all other make-up. Yet for some, even avid make-up wearers, it doesn’t factor into their daily routine at all. Backstage at the fashion shows each season, “no mascara” is a common refrain, with make-up artists often eschewing it in favour of unconventional and more directional looks. But could you go without mascara in your day-to-day life? Here, three Vogue staffers with very different views weigh in.

The Mascara Avoider

Lucinda Chambers – Vogue fashion director

"I have never worn mascara. Ever. Now that I’m having to think about this, it could be a much more complicated thing than “I just don’t like the way it feels” which is what I tell anyone who asks. Which is every make-up artist that has had the misfortune to make me up. Pride and vanity certainly come into it. I have never worn two things: coloured nail varnish and mascara. I labour under the ridiculous belief that if I wore either product I would somehow be ‘busted’. As I like to think that I never wear make-up - not real make-up. The fact that I buy anything with the words ‘natural’ or ‘illuminate’, ‘lift’ or ‘sheer’ on it is a testament to just how much I am in denial. And they confirm that I do indeed wear make-up, I just don’t want anyone to know.

Advertisement

I love mascara on others. I love watching my friends swiping away at their lashes with a wand to do a bit of a lash curl and uplift. But I am just not that person. I am a bare-faced make-up avoidant. But please don’t let that stop you. I know mascara makes a difference. Huge batty lashes, sexy and lovely - heavenly. But on me it’s all wrong, I just can’t do it."

How Often Do You Wash Your Hair?

Read next

Four New Ways To Achieve Supermodel Brows

The Seasonal Mascara Wearer

Fiona Golfar – Vogue editor-at-large

"There is an upside to having very fair eyelashes. I can play around with the make-up I use depending on the season or the style I'm trying to achieve.

Advertisement

In summer I don't like faffing about with mascara. I usually just wear pale blush-coloured eyeshadows which make my eyes look blue. At a stretch I would wear a rust-coloured mascara, which again is good for enhancing blue eyes, but they’re remarkably hard to come by. Otherwise I’ll leave my lashes bare.

Winter is a different story. Not only do I use semi-permanent individual lashes from the fabulous Flutter company who come to my house every four weeks but I layer on the mascara and make my eyes as smoky and dark as possible. I like Charlotte Tilbury’s Full Fat Lashes, which is a deep, dark black. In fact, during winter I like to leave my mascara on overnight - I don't believe in tugging at my eyes to take off what's only got to be put on again the next morning. Just add more and leave your eyes fashionably smudgy."

Is Microblading The Future For Brows?

Beauty News

02 Apr 2017

Advertisement

The Mascara Fanatic

Emma Hughes – Vogue sub editor

"When I swam to the Isle of Wight for charity last summer, I did so in a full-length wetsuit, a silicone cap and two coats of Clinique High Impact Waterproof Mascara. Putting it on before I got in the sea felt as important as having a proper breakfast (and yes, it survived the crossing).

Why am I never without mascara? Pragmatism, partly: I have a big mouth, and a bold lip makes me look like I’ve escaped from the circus. So eyes it is. But my feelings run much deeper than that. My earliest memory is of being mesmerised by watching my (very glamorous) mother apply it. At my all-girls school make-up was verboten, and mascara was the thing the teachers cracked down on the hardest. The second I left, I started making up for lost time - and I’ve never stopped.

Brand-wise, I flit, but I always go back to Bobbi Brown and Benefit. And it has to be blackest black: none of your subtle brown-black, thank you. I use metal eyelash curlers (heated with my hairdryer), then two coats on the top and one on the bottom. The whole shebang gets topped up before I go out in the evening, without fail. When I forgot to put my mascara in my handbag a few weeks ago, my colleagues were treated to the sight of me spitting into the black powder I use as liner and applying the resulting paste to my lashes with a toothpick in the ladies’ loo."